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Title

Sports

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yearb_2008_115.jpg

Transcript

Former coach Art Briles conferences
with the media at the football team's
weekly media conference. The Cougars
held the luncheons with the media every
Tuesday before a home game.
From head football coach to radio
talk show host, Briles did it all for the
UH football team. Briles broadcasted
live from Irma's Southwest Grill in
downtown on Star 790 KBME. The
radio show allowed Cougar fans to gain
insight from the coach himself and for
them to call in with their questions.
Briles has a pre-game consultation with
freshman running back Terrance Ganaway
before the Cougars took on their crosstown
rivals Rice on Oct. 13. The Cougars got the
best of their Conference USA rivals 56-48.
Bouncing Bear Brile
/-2 1&9K*
The man that many UH students
have come to know as a stalwart in Cougar
football history is now a Baylor Bear.
Head coach Art Briles accepted
an offer Nov. 28 to become Baylor's new
head coach and agreed to a seven-year deal
worth about $ 1.8 million per year.
He replaces former Baylor head
coach Guy Morriss, who was fired on Nov.
18 after Baylor finished 3-9 and 0-8 in the
Big 12.
"It's a situation where,
hopefully, I can feel proud about the
program we've established here at the
University of Houston. I know that we're
leaving it in better shape than it was when
we got here five years ago," Briles said
Wednesday afternoon. "I'm extremely
grateful to all the fans. I'm thankful to our
players and our student body because they
are truly resilient."
Briles, who left with a 34-28
record in five seasons, told UH Athletics
Director Dave Maggard that he was going
to work for Baylor and would not coach the
Cougars in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 28 at
Reliant Stadium.
"We really appreciate what
coach Briles has done during the time
that he has been here at the University of
Houston," Maggard said. "He has done
some really outstanding things, and we
really appreciate it."
Maggard named Chris
Thurmond, who spent the last two seasons
as a recruiting coordinator and assistant
coach in charge of cornerbacks, the interim
head football coach for the Texas Bowl.
With four years remaining
on a contract extension he signed last
year, Briles exercised a $300,000 buyout
clause that allowed him to take the Baylor
position.
Baylor, who was 18-40 in
five seasons under Morriss, has not had a
winning season since 1995 and hasn't been
to a bowl since 1994.
Briles will receive a nearly 100
percent pay increase from the $900,000
annual salary he received at UH, but
Maggard said Briles insisted it was not
about the money.
Briles met with the UH football
team Nov. 28 to tell them of his resignation.
He said the attitude of the team was
understandably somber
"It was a quiet meeting," Briles
said. "I told them they're not just phi vers,
they're sons. We put"a lot of time, effort,
blood, sweat and love together ... so it's
a numbing effect, and it was a numbing
atmosphere."
They were numbed, but not
distraught, Maggard said immediately after
the meeting.
Maggard said senior offensive
lineman Dustin Dickinson called his
teammates together and said, "We're going
to stay together and we're going to win the
bowl game."
When Maggard arrived at I'll
in January 2002, the football team was
coming off an 0-11 season and finished 5-7
the next season.
Maggard fell he needed to hire
a coach who would help revitalize the
program. I le chose Briles, who served as
running backs coach at Texas Tech fr
2000-02.
In 2003, Briles led the ( OUgai S
to a 7-6 finish and their first bowl game
since 1996. lie led the Cougars to last
season's ('onferenee I SA championship.
On Dec. 14 Maggard named
Kevin Sun11m the new bead football co
for the Cougars.
Sumlin becomes the I 1 tfa he
coach in Id I history, but more importantly,
he becomes the first African-American to
lead the prestigious Cougar Program.
story by Deanna Mendoza
Photos by Dondria Cooper
171